Identifying Collaborative Innovation Networks: At the Inter-Departmental Level

Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINS) are typically defined using individuals as nodes. Departments in organizations or higher order units can, however, be considered as forming COINs of interest. WORDij 3.0 software enables locating COINS at various levels of analysis including organizational departments. This paper reports on an analysis of interdepartmental collaboration networks of a college based on co-occurrence of department names in news stories about the college. It demonstrates the face validity and utility of using WORDij 3.0 to identify COINS at levels of analysis higher than the individual.